When John Costello took the stage on the second day of the 27th Annual Gathering of Games conference, he had already won a bet with his wife, who happened to be in the audience. Costello, the CEO of Cherry’s Industrial, had wagered that it might only be a few minutes into his talk before he’d start crying. He was right. But the tears that Costello shed on stage—which then quickly spread among the 700 rapt audience members—weren’t tears of sadness. They were tears of relief; freedom from a heavy burden that he had been carrying on his shoulders for years.

Knowledge is power, or in its original Latin, “Scientia potentia est.” The saying, attributed to the 16th century writings of Sir Francis Bacon may be a centuries-old sentiment, but the idea has significant applications in today’s business world. A good modern manager should be familiar with the old Latin phrase in its new forms: open-book management and financial transparency. Here’s why transparency in the workplace matters.

We love to see and hear the inside stories of companies putting the principles and practices of The Great Game of Business® to work in their organizations. As we revealed at the 2018 Great Game of Business Conference, we have a goal to impact 10 million lives in the next 10 years in the #sharonthedream campaign. Here are three of our favorite videos representing three very different stories of how the Great Game has made a difference...

Over more than two decades, our employees have consistently been exposed to the teachings of the Great Game of Business® through meetings and trainings at Daryl Flood, Inc., but we found that we wanted to take this training beyond the classroom to interact directly with employees on an individual level. How? Through gamification of our training courses. This allows us to share content with employees in a format that is fun and motivates them to engage in learning at their convenience. There are four things to focus on when building a successful gamified education program:

“In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.” ~Tom Bodett I remember the grip of fear and dread that day. How could I forget? After 18 years in business, we faced a nearly insurmountable crisis that could have brought it all to an end. A few months earlier I had hired a bright young man that seemed to have what it takes to grow into a valuable member of our team and become a shining star. His name was Travis and he applied to be an estimator and project manager. Filling this role successfully would increase sales and help us grow. But in time I learned my assessment was wrong! Oh, how wrong!

Transparency is key to playing The Great Game of Business®, but it raises concerns for many folks new to the open-book world. Does transparency mean sharing everyone’s salaries? Will competitors know our confidential information? Will transparency make my company vulnerable? It can be scary to pull back the curtain. But practiced skillfully, transparency is part of a formula for success rather than a risk for overexposure. Take a look at our top tips on business transparency and practicing GGOB.

Excerpted from The Great Game of Business. The Great Fear #2 Is It Competitors You Fear—Or Your Own Employees? Sad to say, a lot of companies hide their financials not because they're afraid of their competitors, but because they're afraid of their employees. They don't think people will understand the numbers, and there's some truth to that. If you don't show employees how to use financial information as a tool to help the company, they might well use it as a weapon against the company.

Excerpted from The Great Game of Business. How do you get to the point where you can even think about democratizing the workplace—about being a transparent business that gives people access to the numbers and, in addition to that, the means to control their destiny? Not by swallowing your pride and admitting that you don't have all the answers and can't make all the decisions. No, it's by swallowing your fear.

With different levels of employees, do you structure bonus and reward programs equally? Does GGOB implementation differ between professional and support staff? Are staff privy to others' salary information? Our Great Game™ coaches answer how to tackle these tricky questions in this segment of "Ask the Coaches."

If any industry would have difficulty with transparency, one might argue that it would be government entities, but that has not stopped Greene County, Missouri from opening the books. Greene County began playing their version of GGOB— The Great Game of Government— in 2012 by modifying Great Game practices to fit the needs of a government organization. Their efforts and financial results earned them the All-Star Pioneer Award in 2015, which honors an organization that is the first in their field to implement and practice the methodology of The Great Game of Business. After years of progress in opening the books and improving upon Great Game practices, the officials at Greene County challenged themselves to take transparency to the next level.